Please excuse ANY grammatical errors.

April 12, 1993

~Rick's P.O.V~

Leaving Gary is a big relief, even if it's just for a week. I'm tired of the drama and my mama's constant nagging and yelling. The only thing I'll miss on this little break is the people I play basketball with from the school and the neighborhood. Atlanta is way more warmer than Gary. It's April and it's STILL snowing back home. I'm happy that someone in my family that actually grew up there has made it out.

We have so many family members that turn they're noses up at us, thinking they all mighty God himself. That shit never sat right with me, so we are determined to make it. I will be one of the next ones, mark my words. One of these days somebody important will see me play ball and be impressed and want to draft me. I'm one of the best players in Gary, hell even Indiana. I was so good that the coach allowed me to play fro high school when I was still in middle school. Basketball is my life, that's all I got to look forward to besides the girls that come and go.

"I ain't passin' the ball to yo SORRY ass no mo'!" Yas yelled at De. "You fuckin' suck!"

"You should stick to music!" Tay told him which caused everybody to laugh.

"Fuck y'all, I'm good at this!" De yelled back, a sweating mess, leaning his hand on his knees in a squatting position.

"You suck HARD! Your jump shot is WAYYYYY OFF!" Tia yelled out from the kitchen window that was open.

That nigga De suck ASS in basketball, or maybe I'm just too good. Me and Tay on teams and De and Yas on teams. Yas is real mad that he on his team. De the second tallest dude here and he is the sorriest one here. We are at my auntie and uncle house, Tia and Yas's mama and step dad back yard. They have a basketball court. I ain't wanna be around that faggot at Tia's house, so I'm here playing basketball.

"Aye, can you give us somethin' to drank?" Yas asked his sister.

"Yeah." She moved away from the window to go to the fridge, I assume.

"Okay, y'all might be on to somethin'. Let's just say that am horrible at basketball. Hypothetically speakin'! I'm good as hell in baseball." De said out of breath.

"Hypothetically? You ARE horrible. Ain't no dang on hypothetical." I said shaking my head at him.

"We don't play no baseball." Tay spoke up. "Ion know what you so tired for when you did a whole lotta nothin'." He chuckled.

"Think fast!" Tia yelled from the window, throwing out bottles of water. One hit De in his head, and another one slammed against my chest.

"He suck, but you do too. I had open arms for that bottle and you hit my chest. Check ye aim Tia!" I said picking the bottle up from the ground.

As kids me and Tia would get our asses whooped together, and quietly talk smack about our mama's afterwards. I got the most whippings though. Let's face it, I get into trouble and still do, due to the people I hang around. Me and Tia used to be close as kids but as we grew up, I noticed her stray away from the family and stay to herself.

We'd talk about what we wanted to be as adults. Tia's occupation always varied, it was always between a chef, a lawyer, and when we were VERY young, dang near toddlers, it was a robot. I wanted to be a firefighter until I started playing basketball.

"Tell me something that I don't know. I've heard it a jillion times from y'all. I could have let y'all walk y'all tired behind in here and get ye own drinks. Be grateful!" She rolled her eyes.

"You need good hand-eye coordination. Boffa y'all." I pointed to Tia and De.

"I'll have you know, I'm behind a camera, so I HAVE good hand-eye coordination. I had to learn to do this. I just can't aim that good when throwing. Mmm!" She rolled her neck.

"Okay, that's positive but on a sidenote you suck." I shook my head and downed my bottle of water.

"When you ain' got no comeback." Tay said shaking his head at me.

"Y'all wanna play anotha game?" I asked Yas, Tay, and De.

"Hecky nahhh, with this sorry ol' dude on my team! I'm fa sho gon' be on the losing side. I made all the hits while he only scored once, a three pointer, but ONE hit. Every other time was a miss! Nahhh..." Yas turned the corners of his mouth down, shaking his head towards De.

"C'mon man, I ain't THAT bad at ball. Y'all just over exaggerating. I made us seven points in total." De said moving the bottle from his mouth.

"Seven points while I made the others. We got twenty-one to they thirty- two. That don't add up my dude." Yas told him.

"Dang, I'm still stuck on the seven points!" Tay said laughing hard, and choked on his water. I went over to beat him in his back. "You ain't gotta hit me that hard." Tay said between coughs, pushing me away.

When I noticed the stray of Tia away from the family, me and my brother Tay became close. I was older and knew what I wanted to do then. Tay and I talk to each other about REAL things in life. We found out that we feel the same about our growing up, considering we lived in the same house.

I am told that I'm the most hard headed out of my mama's kids. While that may be true, there's a method to my madness. Tay started to stray not too long after us getting close. You know the typical, him getting older, reaching puberty, and wanting to be around girls, which left me to find friends outside the family. Then he moved away at aged eighteen, I started hanging around the wrong people.

Being popular at school has it's cons and that's the people that popularity come with. The type of people that mess with others, steal, and a whole lot of other things, mostly illegal. Now, I may hang around them but I don't take part in what they do. Being that I'm around some of the times that they do thing's, I get in trouble too. I've only been to jail once, and that was from being accused by cops of throwing rocks at they car on the way home from school with Tay at six years old. It was false, but sure enough we sat in a jail cell together. It was the scariest things I have ever experienced at that time.

Besides that, I was SO CLOSE to being locked up plenty of times because of my peers. All I'm trying to do is play ball, I feel like it's the only thing I feel like I'm good at. All I do now is go to practice, play video games, sneak over to girl's houses, and play basketball. I have one more year of high school left and I don't have any other plans besides basketball. I KNOW I will make it to the pros, so a plan B won't be necessary.

"The devil made me do it." I joked, catching myself on my left foot.

"The devil made him choke on his words. Y'all KNOW, I ain't that bad. I can't really do nothin' if I got Kareem Abdul-Jabbar blockin' me. Andre the Giant here got me feelin' like Rey Mysterio." De said sitting down at the picnic table and pointed to me.

"It ain't my fault that you suck. You suck at everything about basketball. Yo dribble: TRASH. Yo stance: TRASH. Yo jump shot: TRASH. Runnin': TRASH. You look like Goofy from Mickey Mouse when you run. And then yo aim: TRIPLE, DOUBLE TRASH! You might as well chang TRASH to yo stage name." I shrugged at him.

De threw his hand at me. "Man, whateva. You just met me like a seven hours ago. You on't know what I'm capable of."

"We known ye long enough to know that you trash at basketball. That's fa sho." Tay added.

"Can you give us some Mr. Freeza's? I want somethin' else, now that this water is gone." Yas asked Tia.

"Be prepared to get hit." Tia said turning around.

"You KNOW she can't throw." I told them.

"Wait, do all of y'all want one?" Tia asked us and me, Yas, and Tay nodded at each other.

De was sitting there confused. "The hell is a Mr. Freeza?" He asked us. Our head whipped around to him quick as hell.

"Hol' on, you can't play ball AND you 'on't know what a Mr. Freeza is?" Tay asked him.

"Nahhh, hell is that? Tell me and I 'a know." De said to Tay.

"Folk up north pronounce many things different than others, especially since most people up north ancestors are from the south. It's a mix. It's called a Mr. Freeze, and it's just those popsicles you suck and slurp from plastic." Tia said coming outside with Drew beside her holding a few of them.

"You want one?" Drew asked De.

"Yeah." De held out his hand.

"Choose the color." Drew held them all out. "Blue, white, red, purple and orange. Hurry up! My arms and hands are cold." He shivered, and Tia grabbed then from him, since he complained about being cold.

"The red one." De nodded.

"Then grab it..." Tia said with bulging eyeballs. De grabbed it from her.

"They don't know you, but I do. I known you long enough that you on somethin' wit my sista." Yas pointed at De.

"Hol- hol' up naa, what's goin' on between y'all?" I gave them the side eye.

"Nothing. Yasir, shut ye mouth. You don't know anything." Tia said to Yas.

"I know mo' than you think. Ion know about you bein' THIS close to a dude, not even yo ex dog when y'all was togetha." Yasir pointed to Tia. "Unless- unless, you gay or somethin'?" He said to De.

De face scrunched up tightly. "You talkin' to me?"

"Nahh, I'm talkin' to- duhh nigga I'm talkin' to you! Fool ass, nigga. I'm just jivin', I know yp ass ain't gay. I see the way you be lookin' at my sista. You be tryna be slick wit it too. You ain't slick, but the only otha nigga I know she close to is that fag dude at her crib." Yas told him.

"How he look at yo sista?" Tay asked Yasir.

"That look nigga, you know what I'm talkin' 'bout. Don't play fooli'." Yasir said to Tayman.

"Explain it then." Tay gestured.

"How you look at that ol' white girl. What's her name again? Ahh, yeah Heather!" Yas snapped his finger. As soon as he said that Tia and De looked at each other and bursted out laughing. (It's a reference to the previous chapter, if you're wondering.)

"What's so funny? We wanna laugh wit y'all too." I raised my eyebrow.

"Damn, lil nigga. You questioning me like you known me for years or somethin'. I'm not obligated to answer shit from y'all." De said still laughing.

"It's an inside joke. Don't trip Ricky." Tia held up her hand up at me.

"You right..." I nodded at De.

"I know I am. Ion like people I just met diggin' into my personal life like that. That shit is rare. You get what you see, and if you see somethin' you don't like then that shit is probably based on how you are." De said to us shrugging.

"You keep on cursing. I know you're rich, so next time you curse, pay me five bucks for EVERY curse word." Drew said to De.

"Smart kid, but no deal. Here's five bucks though." De handed Drew a five dollar bill.

"THANKS!" Drew's eyes widened, and eyebrows raised in shock.

"You welcome." He said back. Then I held out my hand. "Holdin' out yo hand for?" De raised his eyebrows at me. How high can he raised them things?

"Money." I said to him still holding out my hand. "I want some too, since you givin' some away."

"You just as big as me- you BIGGER than me and got yo hand out. Ain't you eighteen?" He asked me.

"I am, and finna be nineteen in July, but I'm still in high school so..." I still held out my hand.

He slapped my hand. "You ain't gettin' no money outta me. You just met me, and you got yo hand out. This lil dude is a child, so it's acceptable. You a grown ass man. Nahh, ion think so. Then you said you turnin' nineteen, which is even worse." De shook his head at me. "I was raised that after eighteen, every cent you get is earned or found, unless it's a holiday, special occasion, or I'm with you, and ion do men."

"Ricky, stop doing that. You know we don't do that around here." Tia frowned at me.

"We?" I said shocked. "We raised in two different households. My mama told me that if I see an opportunity, take it. So I to my shot but missed."

"Yeah, but you know that ain't what she meant. Ion even do that." Tay told me shaking his head.

"We got two different brains." I shot out.

"Excuse..." Drew sang out.

"Shap!" I yelled at him. (It means shut up.)

"Ricky is mean. He doesn't like me." Drew frowned at me.

"Awww." Tia cooed hugging him. She always babying him. "You gon' stop talking to this baby like that." Tia frowned up at me.

"Like what? And what baby? He almost as big as you." I motioned towards Drew.

"So? He's still a child. Don't do that." She said hugging on Drew.

"He does it at home all the time. He's so mean to me for no reason." Drew said in a whiney tone. They ALWAYS take his side.

"Remember when you used to do that? Whine and get babied?" Yasir asked me.

"Never did that. I been like THIS since a toddler." I told him.

I could tell that Tay disagreed with me from his expression. "You must be still a toddler because mama still take yo side over mines at this big ol' age. Don't front actin' all brand new." Tay said to me.

"How this get on me? We was talkin' 'bout him and Tia." I said to all of them pointing to Tia and De.

April 14, 1993

~DeVanté's P.O.V~

"Donald..." I heard Tia say. How the fuck she get in my dream? I'm supposed to me in the studio by myself.

"Oh, Donald..." She sang out now had a goofy tone.

I woke up from my dream noticing that she was calling my name in real life. I opened my eyes and saw her and her little cousin Drew standing there.

"Breakfast is ready." They said in sync.

"Okay," I grumbled, sat up, rubbing my eyes, trying to get rid of all the crust. They turned to walk away, but then turned around.

"Ahh, yeah. I feel like I didn't redeem myself the other night. So... GET HIM, POOK!" She yelled out and they pointed a gun pointed at me.

It wasn't a real gun of course, but a nerf gun. Tia had a super nerf gun while Drew had a regular sized one. The gun was behind their backs and that is how I didn't see the guns before. They shot me up, I got hit in my face and chest, while the rest of my body was covered. I threw the blanket off my body and jumped out of the bed.

"RUN!" Drew yelled at Tia and they ran fast.

I tripped on the covers that fell in front of me. I fell straight on my face. "Shit!" I yelled put.

I got back up and took off down the stairs, that's where I assume they went since they mentioned breakfast. When I made it down there, they were nowhere to be seen. I did see Tay and Rick or Ricky whatever the fuck his name is. Elijah was also down there, but far away from Tay and Rick. I was out of breath from that long ass run.

"Aye, where Tia and them at?" I asked them.

"They went upstair to get you, right?" Elijah said with a confused look on his face.

"They did and blasted me afterwards." I frown, and turned t Tay and the other one. "Y'all seen 'em?"

"Nahh, I'm too busy tryna get to my food." Tay replied and Rick just shrugged at me eating his food.

"Psshh," I waved my hand at them. "Imma find them."

I started to walk away but then I heard snickering below me. I knew it was the little boy. He must've been hiding in the cabinets. So, I opened a cabinet and all I saw were appliances. I closed that one and opened the next one that was a single doored cabinet. Low and behold the little boy was in the cabinet, I felt two balls hit my head.

"Man, I was nice to you. I even gave you money a couple times Why you do this?" I asked him, grabbing him from the cabinet.

"It's FUN!" He exclaimed.

"Where's Tia?" I asked him.

"She's my cousin, you not. Mama always said that blood is thicker than water. I wouldn't tell you." He chuckled evilly.

"I'll pay you five bucks?" I suggested.

"She's upstairs somewhere. We separated once you fell. I ran down the stairs and she stayed up there." He told me.

"So, you on my team?" I asked him.

"Buy me some hot chips and it's a deal." He raised his eyebrows.

"Deal, but I will give you the money for it because I can't go to no sto'." I wouldn't mind goin' to a store but it's a little too hot to be all buttoned up tryna hide my identity. I'd look like a damn fool. Of course I can go with my guards but still... "Anymore guns?" I asked and put him down.

"No more." He shrugged. "I have ammo." He pulled out some of the nerf balls from his pockets.

"Let's go," I motioned with my head for him to follow me.

We both went upstairs and searched room for room, closets, and under beds. The only room we didn't check was mines, but I don't think she's in mines considering that the room it all started.

"Check your room." He LOUDLY whispered to me in attempt to actually whisper.

"I got it from here lil dude. You can go back downstairs." I told him.

"But we're a team!" He exclaimed.

"We are, but I got it from here. You can eat before yo food get too cold." I told him and he nodded.

"Make sure you pay me what you owe me."

"I will." I told him. He eyed me, turned around and left.

I went into the room I stay in. The first place I looked was under the bed, then the closet. I stood in the middle of the room besides the bed completely dumbfounded. I took a seat on the bed in though trying to figure out where I didn't check. My eyes shifted once I saw movement underneath the desk. I smirked, knowing it was her underneath there. Plus I see the bright orange of the nerf gun.

"You might as well come out. I see you under there. Don't shoot me now." I got up and began to slowly walk close with my hands held up.

"Alright, but don't make ANY sudden movements." She said crawling from underneath the desk.

"I ain't." I said as she stood up from the floor.

Then I charged at her and all I felt was nerf bullets hitting me in my private parts CONTINUOUSLY. I picked her up on my right shoulder and ran into the bathroom. I quickly opened the shower door and turned on the shower.

"What do you say to me?" I asked her.

"Put me down!" She kicked. I stopped her kicks with my hand.

"Okay," I cheesed about to place her in the shower.

"N-no! WAIT! OKAY!" She breathed out heavily. "I have something to say."

"What the fuck you got to say? Huh?" I smirked.

"If you get me wet, you're getting wet to. I'm not getting wet by myself, the person who caused it with get it." She told me. I felt her breathing on heavily.

"Wording, Tia. What you just said can be taken more than one way." I said about to drop her.

"WAIT!" She said again.

"What is it?" I asked her.

"If you get my hair wet-" She started but it was too late. I had already put her under one of the shower heads. "DONALD!" She yelled out at me and pulled me in. "You messed up my hair, DUDE!" She said angry. She pulled me in as well, next to her.

"Brehh," I blank faced her. "Why you do that? You mad and you started it." I said attempting to get the gun that fell across the shower, but slipped due to the water running over us and Tia grabbing me.

"I didn't start it, I told you if you get me wet you're getting wet as well. You started it the other day when you had my leg over my shoulder and me in a headlock. I didn't get to redeem myself. So, this was the next best thing." She frowned. "But it backfired." She pouted.

"You damn right. You ain't getting away with shit. Wasn't grabbing my manly parts redemption enough?" I asked her.

"No! It did the opposite of what I wanted." She crawled to get the gun.

"Nope, think you slick?!" I grabbed her shirt and she turned back to face me. "You did more damage than you think doing that shit."

"Was that damage all over my mirror? I've never seen damage in real life but it looked pretty close to it in films to me." She side eyed me.

"I told you that was soap and water that I flung from my hands." I reached for the gun and she grabbed me.

"Not so fast." She flipped over on me in a straddling position, her thighs holding me arms to my side. "You're not getting me." She wiggled her eyebrows then started tickling me.

"Yo, s-sto-STOP!" I said between laughter.

"Okay, that's fine by me." Tia twisted my nipples hard as hell.

"OOOUUCHH!" I yelled out to the ceiling. The pain cause me to move my legs up, that pushed her up, her wet breast on my face. Well, my head was between them. Some accidents are good.

I heard her forehead hit the floor of the shower. "Mm..." She groaned out in pain. She moved her right leg from the side of me and laid down still groaning. "That hurt..." She rubbed her head. "Lucky I caught myself before I hit my head TOO hard."

"Again, you brought this on yourself girl." I chuckled and pinched her nipples right back.

"Donald..." She moaned my name loud. I forgot that shit ain't got the same effects on women. Maybe I didn't and just don't give a fuck.

Aye, that sounded kinda good. I nodded in approval and reached again but she covered each breast with four fingers. "Want some more?"

"Do it and you're dead." She squinted at me warningly.

"Stop playing with me girl. You get what you give. Girl or not." I told her and she moved her hands from her breast. I was distracted from her wet nipple poking out at the air to know what she was doing with her hands.

"Oh yeah? Whatever you give me, you're going to get it harder." She held up the gun. "Hands up!" She started to laugh. I pretended as if I'd put my hands up but smacked it out of her hands. I tickled her while she cried out for me to stop.

"I gotta pee! Stawwwppp!" She laughed, squeezing her legs together.

I moved my left leg between hers and continued to tickle her. "You piss and imma call you Pissy Pussy for as long as I'm around." I continued tickling her.

"Do-DoON-DONALD, LEMME 'LONE!" She tried to break loose.

"DONALD, LEMME 'LONE!" I mocked her stull tickling.

"What the hell..." I heard from beside me. Me and Tia turned around and it was her brother. He was staring hard as hell at the both of us.

"This ain't what you think it is. Don't overthink it." Tia spoke up and I covered my manhood. I was all soaked up so it was pretty visible, although Tia didn't pay attention to it. My shit got excited from what my eyes saw.

Author's Note: What y'all think gon' happen next?👀👀💀 Do y'all like Rick?

Word Count: 4,270

Please feel free to like and comment. Feedback gives motivation, and motivation urges me to continue to write.

Thank you all for taking the time out of your day to read another chapter of this story. Thank you for staying despite the slacking.💚🖤❤💜💙💛